This month we are reading The Barbarian Nurseries by Hector Tobar. We are long time fans of Mr. Tobar, his first book The Tattooed Soldier being one of the very first novels we read together and we have all been looking forward to another opportunity to experience the author's street-level view of Los Angeles and Orange County. It's especially exciting to be reading this book which explores culture, class, immigration, crime, media and half a dozen other front page issues right on the brink of a major election. Here are a few links to supplement our discussion...Most of us are also already familiar with Mr. Tobar's reporting and opinion in the Los Angeles Times. The author has a personal web page, where I found the most interesting link to be this page of links to the journalism he is most proud of. Pepperdine has a podcast interview (scroll down to Episode 20) with the writer that predates Barbarian, but I think is an excellent place to get some good biographical insight.
For an in depth look at the book, you can't go wrong with the Tobar's appearance in the Los Angeles Public Library's ALOUD series. KCRW's Bookworm has a shorter interview and of course, there's our friend Sonali Kolhatkar's video interview above.
As a bonus, check out these recommendations from Mr. Tobar: Favorite L.A. novels, and a playlist to accompany your Barbarian journey.
Last but not least, it appears that the film rights to the book have been sold and a writer is working on the screen adaptation. Let the casting speculation begin in comments!
No comments:
Post a Comment